UC-NRLF 


Confession 

of  a 


Hmcrican 

Cbtoarb  S- 
terner- 


i 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


5 


0<a  X 


The  Confession 
of  a 

Hyphenated  American 


BY  EDWARD  A.  STEINER 

THE  CONFESSION  OF  A  HYPHENATED 
AMERICAN 

I2mo,  boards net  500. 

INTRODUCING  THE  AMERICAN  SPIRIT 

What  it  Means  to  a  Citizen  and  How  it  Ap- 
pears to  an  Alien.     I2mo,  cloth  .    .  net  #1.00 

FROM  ALIEN  TO  CITIZEN 

The  Story  of  My  Life  in  America.     Illustrated, 
8vo,  cloth net  $1.50 

THE  BROKEN  WALL 

Stories    of   the    Mingling   Folk.      Illustrated, 
I2mo,  cloth net  #1.00 

AGAINST  THE  CURRENT 

Simple  Chapters  from  a  Complex  Life.     I2mo, 
cloth .  net  $1.2$ 

THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE — ITS  EBB 
AND  FLOW 

Illustrated,  8vo,  cloth net  #1.50 

ON  THE  TRAIL  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT 

Illustrated,  I2mo,  cloth net  $  1.50 

THE  MEDIATOR 

A  Tale  of  the  Old  World  and  the  New.     Illus- 
trated, I2mo,  cloth net  $1.25 

TOLSTOY,  THE  MAN  AND  His  MESSAGE 

A  Biographical   Interpretation.       Revised  and 
enlarged.     Illustrated,  I2mo,  cloth  .  net  $1.50 

THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  CHERRIES 

Illustrated,    I2mo,   boards net  .5oc. 

THE  CUP  OF  ELIJAH 

Idyll  Envelope  Series.    Decorated  .    .  net  25C. 


The  Confession 

of  a 

Hyphenated  American 


By 
EDWARD  A.  STEINER 

Author  of  "From  Alien  to  Citizen"  etc. 


NEW  YORK         CHICAGO         TORONTO 

Fleming     H.     Revell     Company 

LONDON          AND          EDINBURGH 

LIBRARY 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


A  Lecture  delivered  under  the 
Auspices  of  The  League  for  Polit- 
ical Education,  New  York  City 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  100  Princes  Street 


The  Confession  of  a 
Hyphenated  American 

DR.  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES, 
who  was  as  much  metaphysician 
as  physician,  declared  that  every 
man  has  a  blind  spot.  If  he  were  living 
in  these  war-clouded  days  he  would  say — 
if  he  were  capable  of  reasoning  at  a  time 
when  the  whole  world  has  gone  mad — 
that  every  man  has  a  seeing  spot,  and 
that  all  the  rest  of  him  is  blind.  He  might 
declare  a  large  portion  of  humanity  stone- 
blind  ;  for  even  the  wisest  and  the  fairest 
among  us  are  in  that  happy  frame  of 
mind  in  which  we  believe  that  we  alone 
have  retained  vision,  now  that  the  world 
has  gone  back  to  the  "  Tohu  Vawohu " 
which  reigned  before  the  Creator  said : 
"  Let  there  be  light." 

Living  as  we  are,  at  a  time  when  we 
have  lost  faith  in  one  another's  intellectual 
[5] 


THE  CONFESSION 

integrity,  it  is  as  difficult  to  speak  clearly 
and  dispassionately  as  it  is  to  listen  pa- 
tiently. Both  processes  become  doubly 
difficult,  if  the  speaker  belongs  to  that 
class  of  citizens  upon  whom  a  famous 
phrase-maker  has  bestowed  the  now 
malodorous  title,  "  Hyphenated  Ameri- 
cans." 

The  word  "hyphenated  "  has  led  a  very 
honourable  and  innocent  existence  in  the 
ample  bosom  of  Webster's  dictionary  ever 
since  that  volume  became  the  longer  cate- 
chism of  a  large  portion  of  the  English- 
speaking  world  ;  and,  according  to  that 
authority,  it  means  "  something  which  is 
united  by  hyphens."  The  hyphen  itself, 
which  boasts  of  Greek  lineage,  means,  in 
that  classic  language,  "  under  one,  into 
one,  or  together."  Even  where  it  is  used 
to  separate  two  words  it  indicates  that 
they  belong  together,  although  they  have 
a  distinct  origin.  Evidently  the  afore- 
mentioned phrase-maker  permitted  his 
mood  to  influence  his  definition  of  the 
hyphen,  with  the  result  that  the  short, 
very  innocent  and  proper  dash  has  by 
[6] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

brooding  over  it  become  an  elongated, 
damnable  damn.  So  that  which  had  the 
same  significance  as  the  ring  at  a  wed- 
ding ceremony  has  suddenly  become  the 
symbol  of  divorce,  and  is  being  given  the 
same  place  in  the  sphere  of  patriotism 
that  adultery  has  in  married  life. 

CONFESSING  THE  HYPHEN 
I  am  in  the  enviable  position,  denied 
most  of  my  kind,  in  which,  before  my 
peers,  I  can  present  my  cause ;  and  I 
plead  guilty  to  the  charge  of  being  a 
hyphenated  American  according  to  Web- 
ster— not  according  to  Roosevelt.  I  am 
proud  of  the  fact  and  happy  in  it,  just  as 
proud  and  happy  as  I  am  in  being  a  mar- 
ried man,  rather  than  a  divorced  man. 
That  I  was  born  in  another  country, 
subject  of  a  monarch,  I  was,  for  certain 
well-established  reasons,  unable  to  avoid. 
To  my  credit  be  it  stated  that  as  soon 
as  I  discovered  my  deplorable  condition  I 
sought  to  make  amends  in  the  only  way 
I  knew  :  the  way  taken  by  millions  be- 
fore and  after  me — emigrating  to  a  coun- 

[7] 


THE  CONFESSION 

try  which  was  generous  enough  to  admit 
us  all. 

Not  only  did  that  country  admit  us  to 
her  shores,  she  did  not  bar  our  way  into 
her  "  Holy  of  Holies."  Thus  we  were 
bound  to  her  so  closely  that  we  became 
"  hyphenated  "  before  we  knew  it,  wedded 
to  her  "  for  better  and  for  worse,  for  richer 
and  for  poorer  "  ;  married  to  her  as  swiftly 
as  marriages  take  place  in  this  country, 
where  everything  is  frightfully  acceler- 
ated. 

We  were  bound  to  her  with  a  sense  of 
loyalty  and  devotion  which  the  native- 
born  American  cannot  always  feel.  What 
she  has  done  for  us  is  sufficient  to  bind  us 
to  her  "till  death  us  do  part,"  no  matter 
what  she  may  have  done  or  not  have  done 
in  these  unhappy  days,  in  which  every 
one  of  us  has  spoken  harshly,  judged 
partially  and  condemned  hastily.  The 
time  will  come  and  that  very  soon,  when 
all  of  us,  remembering  the  wild  words  we 
have  let  loose,  the  ill  we  have  approved 
and  the  good  we  have  condemned,  will 
smite  our  breasts,  saying:  " Mea  culpa" 

[8] 


OP  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

Again  speaking  for  myself,  I  had  quite 
forgotten  that  I  possessed  even  the  in- 
nocent hyphen,  as  interpreted  by  Web- 
ster, not  by  Roosevelt.  There  was  not 
a  drop  of  American  blood  in  my  veins 
when  I  landed  in  New  York  scarcely 
thirty  years  ago.  Yet  I  can  say  to-day 
without  a  bit  of  cant,  which  I  always 
detest,  and  which  is  doubly  detestable  in 
these  trying  days,  that  if  you  drained 
every  drop  of  my  blood — and  I  am  will- 
ing to  give  the  last  drop,  if  needed,  if 
thus  my  words  might  be  proved — you 
would  find  in  my  veins  American  blood 
only. 

I  regarded  myself  so  thoroughly  an 
American  that  I  forgot  the  very  names 
of  the  ships  on  which  I  chronically  mi- 
grated and  remembered  only  one  of 
them,  which  it  seemed  had  brought  me 
here — the  Mayflower.  Whenever  I  re- 
turned to  the  land  of  my  birth  it  was  like 
going  to  a  foreign  country.  When  I 
stood  before  the  Emperor's  palace  in  the 
city  of  Vienna,  with  no  great  patriotic 
emotions  stirring  in  my  breast,  I  could 
[9] 


THE  CONFESSION 

hear  the  questioning  voice  of  the  poet 
ringing  accusingly  in  my  ears  : 

"  Lives  there  a  man  with  soul  so  dead 
Who  never  to  himself  hath  said, 
'  This  is  my  own,  my  native  land '  ?  " 

and  I  had  to  admit  that  I  was  the  miser- 
able wretch  whose  existence  he  doubted. 
When  my  face  was  turned  Westward, 
and  the  odours  of  the  steerage  filled  my 
nostrils,  then  indeed  I  knew  that  I  was 
going  home,  and  the  Alpine  horn  from 
the  mountains,  snow-crowned  and  glori- 
ous, had  no  such  welcoming  sound  as 
the  fog-horn  from  the  low  dunes  at  Sandy 
Hook. 

OTHERS  OF  MY  KIND 
How  often  I  have  stood  among  thou- 
sands of  my  kind,  on  the  great  ships, 
those  wombs  out  of  which  millions  of  us 
were  born,  full-grown,  into  this  new  land. 
Men  and  women  were  there,  going  back 
to  their  native  land  from  which  they 
thought  themselves  as  yet  unweaned. 

[10] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMERICA!? 

Many  of  them,  more  successful  than  I, 
were  returning  with  small  fortunes  which 
they  intended  to  spend  in  the  towns  and 
villages  where  they  were  born  and  where 
they  expected  to  die.  They  soon  discov- 
ered, however,  that  they  were  pilgrims 
and  sojourners  in  the  land  of  their  birth 
and  again  they  were  seeking  another 
country,  "  even  an  Heavenly  "  ;  or,  to  use 
the  language  of  the  street,  they  wanted 
to  get  back  to  "  God's  Country." 

I  have  been  a  chronic  immigrant,  fol- 
lowing so  frequently  the  trail  worn  by 
millions  of  weary  feet  across  this  conti- 
nent that  it  has  become  a  sort  of  "  White 
Way"  for  me,  straighter  than  that  on 
Broadway,  and  not  so  dangerous.  I 
have  visited  every  foreign  colony  be- 
tween Angel  Gate  on  the  Pacific  and 
Hell  Gate  on  the  Atlantic ;  and  while  I 
have  found  the  mother  tongue  surviving 
in  mutilated  form  among  the  older  gen- 
eration, and  discovered  that  the  most 
loyal  part  of  our  anatomy,  the  stomach, 
still  craves  the  "  leeks  and  garlics "  of 
the  Homeland,  I  have  also  found  the 


THE  CONFESSION 

Spirit  of  America  brooding  over  these 
aliens,  wooing  them  and  winning  them, 
while  but  very  few  do  not  finally  yield  it 
full  allegiance. 

I  have  guided  many  distinguished  for 
eign  guests  who  came  here  to  study  the 
strange  ways  of  this  country  which  they 
had  called  "  the  Dollar  Land."  If  they 
were  discerning,  and  some  of  them  were, 
they  discovered  that  this  country  is  held 
together  by  a  finer  metal  than  gold  and 
by  a  nobler  symbol  than  the  eagle  of  our 
coinage. 

They  found  that  although  there  have 
come  here  in  the  last  twenty  years  some 
thirteen  millions  of  aliens,  broken  bits, 
torn  patches  of  all  nationalities  and  races, 
we  are  being  knitted  to  one  another  as  a 
nation.  At  no  time  in  our  history  has  the 
sense  of  nationality  been  stronger,  and 
never  before  were  we  more  truly  the 
United  States  of  America  than  now. 

These  students  of  our  national  life  were 
amazed  and  confounded  as  they  observed 
the  change  in  the  expression,  bearing  and 
deportment  of  the  peoples  whom  they 

[12] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

knew  in  the  Old  World  as  sullen,  rebel- 
lious, suspicious  and  incapable  of  cohesion. 
The  Slovaks  among  our  immigrants  I 
have  studied  most  intimately,  both  in 
their  native  country  and  in  those  hard  and 
dangerous  occupations  which  have  fallen 
to  their  lot  here,  in  the  mining  camps  and 
steel  mills.  Although  among  the  latest 
comers,  and,  on  account  of  their  political 
history,  the  most  unripe  people  for  Ameri- 
canization, they  passed  the  following  res- 
olution at  a  recent  convention : 

"  Enjoying  the  blessings  of  political  and  civil 
liberty,  under  the  beneficent  provisions  of  the 
United  States  constitution,  which  blessings  were 
freely  bestowed  upon  us  by  the  generosity  of  the 
American  people  who,  by  admitting  us  to  their 
land,  opened  wide  to  us  the  doors  of  opportunity 
and  allowed  us  to  share  with  them  the  fruits  of  the 
labours  of  their  forefathers,  dearly  bought  with 
their  fortunes  and  their  lives,  so  that  we  can  pur- 
sue happiness,  the  great,  inalienable  right  of  every 
man,  better  in  this  land  of  our  adoption  than  in 
the  land  of  our  birth ; 

"We,  the  citizens  and  residents  of  the  United 
States  of  Slovak  birth,  can  the  more  keenly  feel 
the  plight  of  our  brethren  across  the  seas  and  hear 

[13] 


THE  CONFESSION 

the  agonizing  cries  of  those  millions  of  our  kin 
who  are  still  groaning  under  the  oppression  of  in- 
human laws  and  the  tyranny  of  a  selfish,  privileged 
class,  and — 

"  Well  knowing  that  the  American  heart  always 
beats  in  sympathy  with  the  oppressed  nations  of 
the  earth  and  always  has  been  willing  to  lend  to 
such  oppressed  peoples  its  moral  and  even  mate- 
rial support, 

"The  Slovak  League  of  America,  a  federation 
of  the  Slovak  organizations  and  newspapers  of  this 
country,  dedicates  this  Memorandum  to  the  Ameri- 
can People." 

Not  long  ago  I  spoke  at  the  Ford  Hall 
Forum  in  Boston,  where  democracy  can 
be  seen  in  the  making  under  the  guidance 
of  that  superb  American,  George  W. 
Coleman.  It  is  the  most  heterogeneous 
audience  I  ever  address,  the  majority 
being  Russian  Jews,  temperamentally  the 
most  difficult  material  I  know  for  this  ex- 
periment. I  have  seen  them  at  the  great 
Zionistic  Congress  at  Basle  and  they 
were  like  a  seething,  boiling  mass,  un- 
manageable and  dangerous.  Theodore 
Herzl,  that  kingly  Jew,  a  master  of  as- 
semblies, was  incapable  of  controlling 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

them.  I  have  heard  him  say :  "  They 
are  impossible,  they  will  kill  me ! " 

If  his  spirit  could  have  hovered  over 
that  audience  in  Ford  Hall  he  would  have 
said  that  a  miracle  had  been  wrought 
among  his  people  ;  for  at  Ford  Hall  they 
not  only  yield  themselves  to  the  speaker's 
fervent  speech,  but  in  the  discussion  fol- 
lowing they  show  that  their  fiery  individ- 
ualism has  been  subdued  if  not  conquered. 
They  are  making  themselves  ready  to 
play  their  part  in  an  orderly  democracy. 

It  is,  of  course,  well  known  that  before 
the  war  those  institutions  among  the 
older  groups  which  depended  upon  the 
maintenance  of  the  mother  tongue,  lan- 
guished and  were  ready  to  die.  The 
newspaper,  the  church,  the  theater,  if  sup- 
ported at  all,  relied  entirely  upon  the 
newcomers,  even  the  first  generation, 
after  a  time,  being  weaned  from  them. 
This  swift  process  was  ruthless,  destroying 
much  that  was  best  in  the  immigrant's 
inheritance,  and  frequently  not  putting 
anything  of  value  in  its  place.  It  separa- 
ted families,  destroyed  parental  authority, 

[15] 


THE  CONFESSION 

crushed  out  the  fine  flavours  of  tradition, 
and  left  the  raw,  human  material  a  prey 
to  the  low,  the  coarse  and  the  vulgar. 
We  who  had  the  shaping  of  it  in  our 
hands  saved  our  skirts  from  the  contami- 
nating touch,  talking  much  about  the  im- 
migrant problem  but  doing  little  to  solve 
it  in  the  one  way  in  which  it  could  be 
solved. 

Wherever  the  idealistic  American  man 
or  woman  heard  the  call  to  service, — and, 
thank  God,  many  of  them  heard  it — there 
they  wrought  some  such  miracle  as  I 
have  seen  performed  in  Ford  Hall  Forum. 

Go  among  the  settlements  generously 
scattered  through  your  great  cities,  and 
you  will  find  a  hunger  for  ideals,  a  thirst 
for  the  best  things,  and  a  passion  for 
brotherly  relationship,  hard  to  satisfy  even 
by  that  noble  army  of  men  and  women 
who  have  become  the  High  Priests  of  our 
national  spirit,  ministering  in  the  name  of 
our  common  country. 

I  said  that  I  had  forgotten  I  had  a 
hyphen,  and  it  is  true.  If  I  thought  of  it 
at  all,  it  appeared  to  me  like  the  lobes 
[16] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMERICAN 

and  glands  and  other  now  useless  im- 
pedimenta which  I,  in  common  with  other 
human  beings,  have  inherited  from  my 
ancestors  of  varied  species,  who  knew 
how  to  use  them.  That  these  useless 
parts  may  become  inflamed  and  dan- 
gerous, those  of  us  know  who  have  had 
the  case  diagnosed  by  a  physician  who 
knew  not  only  what  ailed  us,  but  also 
knew  the  size  of  our  bank  account.  The 
difficulty  is  not  with  the  hyphen,  but 
with  the  inflamed  hyphen ;  and  because 
it  has  become  a  somewhat  contagious 
disease  manifesting  itself  in  different 
ways,  I  shall,  after  enumerating  them, 
discuss  the  various  remedies  proposed, 
and  offer  a  cure  which  I  believe  would 
be  effective. 

THE  ATLANTIC  OCEAN  HYPHEN 
One    hyphen    is    the   Atlantic   Ocean 
hyphen  ;  and  that  I  discovered  in  the  first 
cabin,  not  in  the  steerage.     Sometimes  I 
do  travel  in  the  cabin,  my  objection  to  it 
being  not  constitutional,  but  financial. 
On  one  of  those  rare  occasions  I  had 

[17] 


THE  CONFESSION 

the  good  fortune  to  have  as  a  fellow  pas- 
senger a  real,  live  countess.  Naturally 
she  would  not  speak  to  me,  because  she 
had  ancestors  and  I  had  none.  Once 
she  did  graciously  bridge  the  gulf  be- 
tween us,  and  that  under  the  stress  of  a 
great  storm.  She  asked  me  whether  I 
thought  the  storm  was  going  to  be  seri- 
ous or  not ;  common  danger  makes  for 
at  least  temporary  democracy.  When 
she  was  assured  that  there  was  no 
danger,  she  relapsed  into  dignified  and 
proper  aristocratic  silence.  She  had  one 
child  and  a  number  of  pedigreed  dogs, 
all  of  them  kept  from  the  contaminating 
touch  of  mere  Americans.  I  knew  her 
father  by  sight  and  by  reputation  ;  he  was 
a  very  celebrated  man  who  fought  and 

bled  others  on  Wall  Street,  and 

he  had  purchased  a  title  as  well  as 
various  and  sundry  ancestors  for  his 
daughter.  This  was  the  first  case  of  the 
inflamed  hyphen  which  I  discovered  ;  and 
I  can  assure  you  it  was  a  hopeless  one. 

It   was   in  that  cabin  and  not  in  the 
steerage  that  I  had  to  fight  real  battles 
[18] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

for  the  United  States,  for  its  democracy 
and  inherent  high  ideals.  The  real, 
hyphenated  Americans  whose  hyphen 
signified  dual  loyalty,  badly  diluted  at 
that,  I  found  in  Charlottenburgh,  Dresden 
and  Munich,  in  Paris  and  the  Riviera, 
among  those  Americans  who  had  ex- 
patriated themselves  for  cultural  or  finan- 
cial reasons.  Their  patriotism  showed 
itself  in  eating  turkey  on  Thanksgiving 
Day,  or  habitually  using  a  certain  brand 
of  soap  which  is  supposed  to  be  ninety- 
nine  per  cent,  pure,  still  leaving  one  per 
cent,  for  patriotism. 

I  found  widows  of  American  soldiers 
drawing  pensions  and  repudiating  our 
democracy  while  they  spent  their  money 
in  the  gracious,  if  faint,  shadow  of 
royalty  ;  and  near- widows  whose  incomes 
were  derived  from  the  toil  of  American 
workmen,  yet  who  believed  so  thoroughly 
in  preparedness  that  they  never  were 
without  military  escort. 

I  have  seen  the  children  of  our  mer- 
chant princes  in  English  and  Swiss 
schools  passing  through  educational 
['9] 


THE  CONFESSION 

processes  which  were  designed  to  sweat 
out  of  them  their  American  blood ;  while 
in  their  father's  shops  and  mills,  foreign- 
born  men  and  women  were  sweated,  to 
get  the  dollars  with  which  to  pay  for 
those  sons'  foreign  education. 

I  have  seen  rivers  of  gold  poured  into 
the  pockets  of  the  Prince  of  Monaco ; 
stacks  of  gold,  good,  plain,  pure  United 
States  coin,  offered  upon  the  green  altar 
of  his  highness  by  men  and  women  who 
thought  it  disloyal  for  our  immigrants  to 
send  their  honest  savings,  mere  crumbs 
from  rich  men's  tables,  to  the  same  old, 
poverty-stricken  world. 

One  of  the  many  effects  of  the  Euro- 
pean war  upon  our  country  is  that  these 
"Hyphenated  Americans"  have  had  to 
return  to  the  United  States  and  that 
many  of  them  had  to  come,  even  as 
their  grandfathers  came,  in  the  steerage. 
Then,  I  hope,  they  realized  what  it  meant 
to  have  a  country  ;  a  country  which,  al- 
though imperfect  in  many  things,  is  one  in 
which  the  individual  may  help  it  strive  for 
perfection,  and  consciously  strive  for  it. 

[20] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMERICAN 

I  wish  I  might  have  met  in  that  steer- 
age of  our  peerage,  those  whom  I  met  but 
a  few  years  prior  to  that  in  the  cabin  of 
the  steamer  Cincinnati,  That  business 
man,  who  told  me  that  he  came  to  Broad- 
way from  the  middle  West,  with  five  dol- 
lars in  his  pocket,  a  Bible  his  mother 
gave  him,  and  not  much  else.  He  had 
toured  through  Germany,  France  and 
England  in  his  own  car,  and  was  bitter 
about  our  imperfections,  our  corrupt  poli- 
tics which  he  had  never  helped  to  make 
clean ;  he  gloried  in  the  perfection  and 
completeness  of  that  Europe  through 
which  he  had  glided  in  his  eight  cylinder 
machine.  I  should  like  to  have  seen  him 
in  the  steerage  and  heard  him  tell  how  he 
and  his  wife  had  to  make  their  way 
through  that  perfect  Europe  when  the 
war  broke  out.  It  would  have  been 
worth  a  great  deal  to  have  seen  them 
walk  across  the  Dutch  border  and  make 
a  run  for  the  crowded  ship  to  take  them 
back  to  the  country  for  which  he  had  only 
one  use — as  a  place  in  which  to  make 
money. 

[21] 


THE  CONFESSION 

I  have  always  regretted  that  I  was  not 
in  Europe  when  the  war  broke  out,  just 
because  I  would  have  had  a  chance  to 
come  back  in  the  steerage  when  it  was 
crowded  by  Americans.  If  I  had  been 
in  that  steerage  I  would  have  rejoiced  to 
see  them  glad  for  once,  as  supremely 
glad  as  any  emigrants,  when  they  passed 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Goddess  of 
Liberty. 

The  real  treason  against  the  demo- 
cratic ideals  of  America  has  been  com- 
mitted not  on  the  East  Side  of  New  York 
but  on  the  West  Side.  I  find  more  real 
patriotism  on  Fifth  Street  than  I  find  on 
Fifth  Avenue ;  and  if  "  government  by 
the  people,  of  the  people,  and  for  the 
people "  perishes  from  the  earth  it  will 
perish  from  the  exclusive  suburb,  down, 
and  not  from  the  inclusive  Ghetto,  up. 

We  who,  by  the  grace  of  God,  have 
been  delivered  from  the  tyranny  of  mon- 
archies are  not  among  those  who  return 
to  the  Old  World  to  exchange  our  for- 
tunes for  baronetcies ;  we  do  not  covet 
the  condescending  smiles  of  the  nobility ; 

[22] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

nor  are  we  among  those  who  prate  about 
the  failure  oi  democracy.  We  are  pro- 
foundly grateful  for  this  inheritance  of 
government  "  of  the  people,"  and  if  we 
are  dissatisfied,  it  is  because  that  govern- 
ment is  not  sufficiently  "  by  the  people  " 
or  "  for  the  people." 

The  most  hopeful  material  for  the  reali- 
zation of  our  democratic  ideals  is  the 
immigrant,  and  not  the  American  emi- 
grant ;  and  the  biggest  hyphen  I  know 
is  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  which  so  many 
wealthy,  native  Americans  have  put  be- 
tween themselves  and  their  United  States, 
to  which  they  have  now  returned,  not 
from  inclination  but  from  necessity. 

THE  IMPOUNDED  HYPHEN 
Besides  this  Atlantic  Ocean  hyphen  of 
which  we  have  been  temporarily  cured 
by  the  war,  we  have  to  face  the  stern  fact 
that  there  is  among  the  newer  immigrants 
a  large  group  which  Prof.  Edward  A.  Ross 
appropriately  calls  the  "  impounded  im- 
migrants." 

Certain  organizations  have  naturally 

[23] 


THE  CONFESSION 

resisted  the  process  of  Americanization. 
This  is  especially  true  of  the  churches  in 
which  nationality  and  religion  are  either 
identical,  or  so  related  to  one  another 
because  of  common  historic  experiences, 
as  to  make  them  indistinguishable  to 
their  adherents.  The  Greek  Orthodox 
Churches,  which  are  always  nationalistic, 
have  most  to  fear,  but  are  the  least  ca- 
pable of  resisting  the  forces  at  work. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Churches  have 
been  able  to  impound  successfully  one  or 
two  Slavic  groups,  but  effectively  only  in 
agricultural  colonies.  Even  there  certain 
tendencies  among  them  have  resisted 
complete  subjugation.  Among  the  Poles 
there  is  considerable  schism  which,  from 
the  religious  standpoint,  has  little  to  com- 
mend it ;  but  is  an  indication  of  the  fact 
that  there  are  forces  working  towards 
liberation  if  not  towards  Americanization. 

It  is  rather  interesting  and  disquieting 
to  find  that  the  most  persistent  impounded 
hyphen  is  found  among  certain  Protestant 
Churches.  They  are  supported  by  their 
governments  which  maintain  close  super- 


OP  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

vision  over  them.  Because  of  the  historic 
relation  of  these  churches  to  similar  Amer- 
ican bodies,  this  supervision  has  proved 
rather  ineffective,  and  wherever  such  fel- 
lowship has  been  established,  the  process 
of  Americanization  could  not  be  resisted. 

It  would  be  easy  to  grow  too  optimistic 
as  to  the  future  of  the  impounded  immi- 
grants by  believing  that,  through  the  in- 
filtration of  American  ideals,  these  groups 
would  be  set  free  to  develop  in  harmony 
with  their  new  environment.  One  or  two 
generations  are  bound  to  grow  up  poorly 
acquainted  with  the  language,  the  ideals, 
and  the  principles  of  the  country  destined 
to  be  their  home  and  that  of  their  children 
— with  the  result  that  they  and  this  coun- 
try alike  will  be  the  sufferers. 

It  is  also  easy  to  foresee  that  if  Europe 
should  continue  to  be  in  a  state  of  national 
ferment,  and  there  is  nothing  to  indicate 
that  it  will  not,  the  reaction  will  be  felt  by 
these  impounded  groups,  and  the  churches 
which  guard  their  souls  will,  with  equal 
zeal,  guard  their  hyphens. 

We  have  as  yet  no  effective  remedy 


THE  CONFESSION 

against  this  impounded  hyphen,  because 
by  the  establishment  of  parochial  schools 
access  to  the  child  has  been  denied  us. 
Some  way  will  have  to  be  found,  however, 
a  way  which  on  one  side  will  guard  the 
religious  sensibilities  of  our  fellow  citi- 
zens and  on  the  other  side  open  a  way 
for  the  child  to  enter  into  its  new  national 
inheritance. 

THE  POLITICAL  HYPHEN 
In  addition  to  the  impounded  hyphen, 
for  which  we  seem  to  have  no  effective 
cure,  our  country  is  visited  periodically 
by  the  political  hyphen ;  an  inflammatory 
epidemic  of  the  hyphen  at  election  time. 
The  seat  of  the  contagion  has  always 
been  in  the  bosom  of  one  or  the  other  of 
our  political  parties,  and  is  spread  largely 
by  office-seekers.  Having  mixed  liberal 
quantities  of  illy  prepared  tables  of  sta- 
tistics, and  the  names  of  national  heroes 
which  they  cannot  pronounce  correctly, 
with  racial  and  national  virtues,  the  whole 
is  fed  to  groups  of  ignorant  foreigners 
who  are  taught  the  one  privilege  of  de- 

[26] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

mocracy, — to  vote — and  to  vote  as  often 
as  possible. 

May  I  ask  in  all  fairness — and  I  do  wish 
to  be  fair — who  is  responsible  for  these 
Hebrew-Republican,  these  Lithuanian- 
Democratic  and  other  hyphenated  clubs 
which  were  and  are  so  frequently  used 
and  misused  for  personal  and  party  ends  ? 

May  I  also  ask  of  the  men  who  have 
been  loud  in  their  condemnation  of  the 
hyphen,  and  to  whom  we  owe  the  ill 
odour  attached  to  it,  whether  they  are 
entirely  guiltless? 

May  I  ask  who  it  was  who  went  to  our 
Little  Hungary  and  ate  " gulyas"  to  the 
glory  of — the  United  States?  And  who 
partook  of  frankfurters,  frequently  im- 
ported, sometimes  domesticated,  and 
always  hyphenated,  to  prove  how  much 
they  loved  the  Germans  ? 

I  may  be  doing  these  people  an  in- 
justice. Perhaps  they  ate  "gulyas  "  and 
frankfurters  just  because  they  were 
hungry ;  perhaps  they  went  to  Little 
Hungary  to  see  the  sights  ;  perhaps  they 
appointed  certain  Little  Hungarians  and 

[27] 


THE  CONFESSION 

Little  Italians  to  office  because  they, 
above  all  others,  were  fitted  for  it. 

Certain  it  is  that  one  cannot  over- 
estimate the  wrong  done  to  our  national 
ideals  by  those  Americans  who  have  thus 
emphasized  the  hyphen  and  gloried  in 
it ;  who  have  rewarded  it  by  petty  offices 
and  have  stimulated  its  growth.  They 
have  appealed  only  to  the  most  ignorant 
and  the  most  degraded  of  the  immigrants 
and  have  thus  done  damage  to  our  de- 
mocracy in  its  most  vulnerable  point. 

My  own  introduction  into  this  sphere 
of  the  political  hyphen  may  be  illuminat- 
ing— if  any  illumination  upon  this  subject 
is  needed. 

During  one  of  my  journeys  "  On  the 
Trail  of  the  Immigrant "  I  attached  my- 
self to  a  group  of  Poles,  who  were  in  that 
confused  mental  stage  of  the  recently 
arrived  immigrant  which  we  designate  as 
"  green." 

We  had  returned  to  our  boarding- 
house  which,  like  most  of  its  class  in  that 
industrial  state,  furnished  more  beer  than 
board.  While  we  were  sitting  about, 

[28] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

after  our  frugal  supper,  a  group  of 
American  men  entered,  so  well  groomed 
and  prosperous-looking  as  to  arouse  our 
respect  if  not  our  envy.  The  most  dis- 
tinguished among  them  was  introduced 
to  the  barkeeper,  who  brought  him  to 
our  group.  The  distinguished  American 
shook  hands  all  around,  telling  us  that 
he  was  a  particular  friend  of  the  Poles, 
and  that  as  a  token  of  that  friendship  he 
had  asked  the  saloon-keeper  to  fill  us  up. 

Evidently  he  knew  nothing  about  the 
Poles,  nor  how  much  it  takes  to  fill  them 
up  ;  for  they  drank  till  daybreak,  when 
they  fell  into  a  drunken  stupor  from 
which  they  were  aroused  to  be  marched 
to  the  ballot  box. 

I  marched  with  them  to  that  altar  of 
our  civic  liberty  which  I  was  eager  to 
see.  I  could  smell  it  before  I  saw  it,  and 
Polish- Americans  cast  their  ballot  for  the 
friend  of  Poland  and  the  enemy  of  the 
United  States,  after  they  had  been  but 
two  months  in  this  country. 

I  have  told  this  story  in  a  number 
of  towns  in  that  state,  and  each  claimed 

[29] 


THE  CONFESSION 

that  the  identical  procedure  had  taken 
place  there.  When  I  finally  told  it  in 
the  very  city  where  I  knew  that  par- 
ticular treason  against  the  ballot  box  had 
occurred,  I  asked  the  audience  what  they 
did  to  the  man  who  had  thus  betrayed 
them.  Instantly  the  reply  came  from  the 
floor,  "  We  sent  him  to  the  United  States 
Senate."  That  Senator  is  dead.  "  Peace 
to  his  ashes "  and  more  ashes  to  his 
peace. 

There  are  but  few  well-known  poli- 
ticians who  have  not  been  guilty  of  cater- 
ing to  the  hyphen  in  a  more  or  less 
damaging  way ;  and  the  most  guilty 
among  them  are  those  who  have  taken 
up  the  slogan  and  cry :  "  Hyphenated 
American  ! "  with  the  same  expressions  of 
fear  as  if  they  were  shouting :  "  Mad 
dog!" 

There  are  members  of  Congress,  candi- 
dates for  our  highest  offices,  mayors  of 
our  large  cities,  and  politicians  great  and 
small,  who  drag  forth  the  hyphenated 
American  for  his  country's  condemna- 
tion in  the  same  spirit  with  which  the 
[30] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEKICAN 

Pharisees  dragged  a  woman  taken  in 
adultery,  before  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  I  ask 
them  in  the  light  of  their  own  guilty  con- 
sciences, who  will  be  the  first  man  to  cast 
a  stone  ? 

Now  that  the  hyphen  is  in  such  bad 
repute  I  trust  that  it  will  be  entirely 
severed  from  party  names  and  political 
slogans ;  for  if  there  is  one  place  where 
we  have  no  use  for  the  hyphen,  and 
never  had  any,  it  is  at  the  ballot  box.  If 
the  war  has  cured  us  of  the  Atlantic  hy- 
phen, and  if  it  cures  us  of  the  political 
hyphen,  then  "  God  be  thankit "  that  some 
good  has  come  out  of  this  mass  of  ill. 

THE  SYMPATHETIC  HYPHEN 
Unfortunately,   the   war   is   the  direct 
cause  of  the  fourth  kind  of  hyphen,  and 
that  I  call  the  sympathetic  hyphen. 

It  is  the  nature  of  war  to  arouse  sym- 
pathy with  one's  own  people  and  antip- 
athy to  their  foes ;  and  both  these  feel- 
ings have  been  stimulated  in  an  unusual 
degree  by  the  present  conflict,  unprec- 
edented in  extent  and  intensity. 

[313 


THE  CONFESSION 

When  the  damage  done  by  this  war 
shall  finally  be  estimated,  the  greatest 
loss  will  be  found,  not  in  the  national 
treasure  wasted,  nor  in  the  burden  of 
taxes  to  be  carried  by  unborn  genera- 
tions, predestined  to  live  even  nearer  the 
hunger  line  than  the  generation  they  suc- 
ceed ;  not  in  the  ruin  of  priceless  works 
of  art,  those  precious  bequests  to  all  hu- 
manity ;  not  even  in  the  loss  of  human 
life,  which  cannot  be  counted  by  mere 
figures.  The  overwhelming  loss  will  be 
that  of  the  ideal  of  internationalism, 
whose  realization  seemed  so  near  that  we 
believed  we  needed  but  to  stretch  out 
our  hands  to  touch  it  and  make  it  real. 

Those  of  us  who  believed  in  it  believe 
in  it  still ;  but  we  realize  that  those  forces 
which  worked  for  it  worked  just  as  much 
against  it;  that  commerce,  science,  in- 
vention, and  all  other  factors  which  we 
so  joyously  hailed  and  so  confidently 
acclaimed  as  progress,  hindered  as  much 
as  helped. 

When  we  begin  the  slow  task  of  re- 
covering what  has  been  lost,  we  may 

[32] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMERICAN 

have  to  begin  with  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, rather  than  with  the  nineteenth  and 
early  twentieth,  the  age  of  great  disillu- 
sionment. It  may  not  be  too  much  to 
say  that  humanity  has  lost  at  least  a  cen- 
tury in  its  march  upward  from  the  brute, 
and  that  it  may  take  another  century  to 
dig  away  this  avalanche  of  hate. 

That  we  should  suffer  in  the  great 
European  disaster  we  might  have 
known ;  but  that  we  should  believe 
our  national  unity  to  be  threatened, 
that  in  this  broadcast  sowing  of  hate  so 
much  of  it  should  fall  upon  our  shores, 
take  root  and  grow  as  swiftly  as  the 
palm  tree  of  the  Hindu  fakir,  none  of 
us  foresaw.  It  was  perfectly  natural, 
however,  that  those  who  cherished  the 
ideals  and  memories  of  the  Homeland 
should,  under  this  calumny  of  hate,  de- 
fend it  both  unwisely  and  irrationally ; 
for  at  a  time  like  this  when  "  wisdom  is 
more  precious  than  rubies,"  the  fact  that 
man  is  a  rational  being  is  open  to  doubt. 

Who  are  we  to  complain  ?  We,  in 
whom  the  English  and  French  hyphens 
[33] 


THE  CONFESSION 

are  supposed  to  have  been  atrophied  long 
ago,  until  suddenly  they  swelled  to  dan- 
gerous proportions  ? 

Every  man  who  has  taken  a  decisive 
stand  in  this  war  justifies  it  by  the  blood 
of  his  ancestors,  and  every  diluted  drop 
of  blood  inherited  from  some  fighting 
progenitor  has  multiplied  suddenly  and 
infected  the  whole  body,  till  most  of  us 
feel  ourselves  to  be  fighting  Scotch  High- 
landers or  Anglo-Saxons,  or  worse,  sav- 
age cavemen,  rather  than  the  twentieth 
century  Americans  we  ought  to  be. 

Moreover,  this  kind  of  hyphen  we  have 
always  had  with  us.  To  be  an  Irish- 
American  has  been  equal  to  a  patent  of 
nobility,  and  great  was  the  reward  of 
those  who  marched  on  St.  Patrick's  Day 
under  the  green  flag,  which  on  that  oc- 
casion was  more  in  evidence  than  the 
stars  and  stripes. 

Have  not  the  Irish  kept  alive  in  us  the 
hate  of  England  ?  Have  they  not  influ- 
enced, if  not  controlled,  Congress  in  its 
relations  to  the  mother  country  ?  Have 
the  Irish  not  plotted  and  planned  with 

[34] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAK 

our  knowledge  and  our  money  towards 
the  freeing  of  Ireland  from  the  yoke  of 
the  oppressor?  Have  they  not  broken 
our  laws  to  help  their  land  ? 

What  would  happen  in  New  York  to- 
day if  England  and  Ireland  were  at  war, 
and  the  United  States  were  to  favour  Eng- 
land and  ship  munitions  of  war  to  shoot 
down  the  Irish?  Do  you  know  what 
would  happen  ?  There  is  no  doubt  about 
it.  You  know  and  I  know. 

There  would  be  war,  fierce  war,  upon 
our  streets;  for  while  the  Irish  are  no 
militarists  like  the  Germans,  they  are 
riotous  fighters,  which  the  Germans  are 
not;  and  every  Irishman,  were  he  red- 
headed or  not,  would  fight  for  Erin.  I 
am  neither  indicting  the  Irish  nor  apolo- 
gizing for  the  Germans  ;  I  am  merely 
giving  you  good  cause  to  be  grateful  that 
the  Germans  are  usually  not  red-headed 
and  never  Irish. 

The  sporadic  lawlessness  of  some  Ger- 
mans, their  interference  with  our  national 
neutrality,  greatly  exaggerated  by  a  preju- 
diced press,  are  trifling,  in  comparison 

[35] 


THE  CONFESSION 

with  the  lawlessness  of  the  Irish,  bent 
upon  gaining  their  national  or  local  po- 
litical ends. 

If  you  remember  that  there  are  about 
eleven  million  Germans  and  so-called 
German-Americans  in  this  country,  that 
there  has  been  no  riot  or  bloodshed,  that 
the  violent  language  used  was  used  by 
the  few  and  that  the  actual  lawbreak- 
ing  was  done  by  fewer  still,  you  may  be 
convinced  that  the  Germans  were,  and 
are,  and  will  prove  to  be,  loyal  American 
citizens.  They  may  not  agree  with  our 
national  policy ;  but  in  that  they  often 
have  strong  support  from  many  influen- 
tial Americans.  If  they  have  spoken  ill 
of  President  Wilson  to  the  point  of  disre- 
spect, and  have  heaped  undeserved  cal- 
umny upon  him,  they  have  merely  fol- 
lowed the  example  set  them  by  the  press 
in  general,  and  by  certain  influential 
Americans  in  particular. 

Moreover  this  is  the  first  time  our  Ger- 
man American  citizens  have  had  a  really 
worthy  cause  for  collective  endeavour. 
Too  many  of  them  have  resolved  and 

[36] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

fought  and  voted  for  the  high  purpose  of 
retaining  their  beer  mugs,  and  gloried  in 
the  liberty  of  the  stomach.  It  was  not 
loyalty  to  the  Kaiser  but  to  the  Kaiserhof 
in  which  they  gloried ;  and  it  was  often 
the  Bismarck  bar  around  which  they 
rallied,  rather  than  the  Bismarck  ideals. 

If  the  Germans  in  America  desire  to 
perpetuate  German  culture,  they  must 
discipline  themselves  by  yielding  unques- 
tioning obedience  to  law,  and  prove  that 
they  are  capable  of  governing  themselves 
and  others  efficiently.  If  they  bring  into 
our  city  and  national  governments  their 
practical  idealism  and  thoroughness,  we 
certainly  ought  not  to  complain ;  for  we 
are  not  so  rich  in  these  qualities  that 
there  is  danger  of  a  surplus. 

If,  however,  the  Germans  try  to  estab- 
lish a  Little  Germany  in  the  United  States, 
and  separate  themselves  and  their  chil- 
dren from  our  common  language  and  na- 
tional interests,  they  will  suffer  by  it  as 
much  as  we ;  for  we  cannot  be  a  nation, 
a  great  United  States,  if  we  are  divided 
among  ourselves.  So  much  every  intelli- 

[37] 


THE  COtfFESSIOtf 

gent  man  ought  to  know,  for  the  strength 
of  the  German  Empire  lies  in  its  unity, 
and  that  unity  was  achieved  by  con- 
formity to  the  Prussian  ideal.  Where 
conformity  was  not  yielded  voluntarily  it 
was  imposed  by  force,  and  where  that 
force  was  opposed,  the  opposition  was 
treated  as  one  of  the  worst  crimes  against 
the  state. 

In  this  respect  the  United  States  has 
been  remarkably  lenient,  and,  to  my 
mind,  wisely  so ;  for  people  are  rarely 
assimilated  by  force.  That  method  is 
cruel,  uncertain,  and  too  costly.  If  it  had 
been  used  in  this  country,  we  would  have 
achieved  much  less  than  we  have,  and 
Congress  might  have  been  divided  upon 
national  or  linguistic  lines,  which  in  the 
end  would  have  been  disastrous  to  the 
unity  that  is  one  of  the  chief  character- 
istics of  this  nation. 

I  am  somewhat  more  fortunate  than 
many  of  my  hyphenated  and  unhyphen- 
ated fellow  citizens,  in  not  having  allowed 
myself  to  be  swept  along  by  the  prevail- 
ing mob  spirit  which  has  divided  the 

[38] 


\ 

OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

country  into  two  hostile  camps.  I  have 
remained  sane  because  I  had  no  faith 
in  diplomatic  papers,  whether  they  were 
called  white,  or  pink  or  blue.  I  know 
that  by  their  very  nature  they  are  all 
more  or  less  black.  I  have  remembered 
the  characterization  of  a  diplomat  by 
the  German  writer  and  satirist,  Borne, 
who  said :  "  Ein  Diplomat  muss  drei 
Sprachen  sprechen  :  Franzdsisch  sprechen, 
nichts  sprechen  und  Lugen  sprechen''  Of 
the  three  languages  which  he  says  a 
diplomat  must  speak,  "liigen"  is  the 
most  in  evidence  in  these  papers. 

HYPHENATED  PATRIOTISM 
My  sympathies  from  the  first  were 
pro- American ;  not  only  because  I  love 
America  above  every  country  in  the 
world,  but  because  it  seems  to  me  that  to 
be  pro-American  is  the  nearest  which 
humanity  has  as  yet  come  to  being  pro- 
human. 

I  have  nothing  but  loathing  for  this 
"foul  and  unthinkable  war,"  for  I  have 
lived   where   it   was   bred,  and    I    have 
[39] 


THE  CONFESSION 

watched  the  dastardly  and  damnable 
process.  A  generation  of  men  was  be- 
gotten and  trained,  to  be  fodder  for 
cannon  and  to  walk  joyously  into  that 
hell.  There  was  aroused  in  them  the 
very  noblest  emotion  of  which  the  human 
heart  is  capable,  and  then  it  was  poisoned 
by  hate,  to  be  used  for  the  base  purpose 
of  human  slaughter. 

I  refuse  to  be  patriotic  in  the  European 
sense — which  means  to  believe  every- 
thing bad  about  other  nations  and 
nothing  but  good  about  your  own,  and 
to  hate  with  desperate  hatred  the  people 
living  yonder,  where  they  have  painted 
another  colour  on  the  custom  house 
barrier. 

If  to  be  an  American,  a  real  American, 
and  a  patriot,  is  merely  that  same  thing, 
then  frankly  I  am  neither  an  American 
nor  a  patriot ;  for  in  America  I  have  been 
emancipated  from  the  patriotism  of  hate. 
I  have  found  that  here  men  work  to- 
gether harmoniously  for  the  common 
good  and  the  glory  of  a  great  country, 
though  their  historic  roots  lie  buried  in 

[40] 


OP  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

different  lands  and  colonies,  among  peo- 
ple with  different  religious  and  social 
ideals,  living  in  states  which  have  con- 
flicting economic  interests,  speaking  di- 
verse languages  and  expressing  their 
faith  in  God  through  different  creeds. 

Heie  two  nations  exist  upon  the  same 
continent,  one  of  which  has  its  political 
affiliation  across  the  sea ;  yet  no  line  of 
fortresses  divides,  to  create  fear,  and  no 
battle-ships  float  menacingly  along  its 
inland  seas. 

All  these  facts  and  the  faith  into  which 
I  was  born  again  in  this  country,  a  faith 
which  has  neither  political  nor  racial 
boundary,  and  whose  Founder  called 
Himself  the  Son  of  Man,  have  made  me 
an  American,  which  is,  or  ought  to  be, 
something  radically  different  from  being 
a  European. 

While  I  have  been  emancipated  from 
the  patriotism  of  hate,  I  have  had  my 
love  of  country  increased,  because  I  re- 
gard it  as  a  country  worth  living  for  and 
even,  if  need  be,  worth  dying  for. 

I  must  confess  that  it  is  not  easy  to 

[41] 


THE  CONFESSION 

keep  faith  in  America  these  days,  when 
it  seems  at  times  that  we  are  not  a  bit 
better  than  the  country  from  which  I 
have  alienated  myself,  and  from  whose 
monarch  I  have  forsworn  allegiance. 

The  reading  of  the  metropolitan  press 
and  the  weak  echoes  of  the  press  of  the 
country  have  often  caused  my  faith  to 
waver.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  a 
war-broth  was  being  brewed  in  editorial 
sanctums,  and  poured  down  the  throats 
of  the  public ;  a  hellish  broth,  com- 
pounded of  greed,  political  opportunism, 
and  prejudice.  The  noteworthy  excep- 
tions merely  serve  the  well-known  pur- 
pose. The  press  has  been  and  is  a 
telescope  rather  than  a  mirror,  holding 
up  to  the  public  the  large  or  small  end 
as  best  serves  its  purpose. 

I  am  not  speaking  merely  of  the  papers 
printed  in  the  English  language ;  the 
German  press,  with  a  few  exceptions,  has 
been  just  as  bad,  just  as  un-American, 
and  not  infrequently  treasonable.  There 
is  one  particular  sheet  printed  in  New 
York  City  which  gives  me  a  feeling  akin 

[42] 


OP  A  HYPHENATED  AMERICAN 

to  madness  every  time  I  see  it,  and  I  tear 
it  to  pieces  and  trample  upon  it  in  my 
wrath. 

The  reading  of  war  books  either  in 
prose  or  verse  does  not  conduce  to 
change  my  opinion,  and  going  to  church 
in  these  latter  days  has  not  helped  in- 
crease my  faith  in  the  religion  of  the 
Nazarene.  In  fact,  if  much  of  what  I 
have  heard  from  the  pulpit  is  Chris- 
tianity, then  my  place  is  with  anarchists 
and  atheists  in  their  curbstone  church. 
If  I  believed  that  the  press  of  to-day  re- 
flects the  American  spirit,  I  should  per- 
force be  driven  from  a  country  which  I 
love  with  a  lover's  passion,  but  could  not 
then  respect. 

It  is  not  easy  to  keep  one's  poise  in 
these  days,  when,  if  one  does  not  con- 
demn Germany  in  toto,  his  friends  call 
him  pro-German,  and  if  one  ventures  to 
criticize  and  censure  Germany,  his  fellow- 
countrymen  look  upon  him  as  a  traitor. 

If  it  had  not  been  so  obviously  ridicu- 
lous, it  would  have  been  difficult  to  be 
civil  the  other  day  when  I  was  told  by 
[43] 


THE  CONFESSION 

my  hostess  that  she  was  sure  there  were 
German  spies  in  Northern  Maine  all  sum- 
mer. She  saw  them  prowling  about  in 
the  woods  during  the  day,  and  they  spent 
their  nights  writing  reports  to  their  gov- 
ernment. Doubtless  those  "  spies  "  were 
taking  a  census  of  the  pine  stumps,  and 
mapping  out  the  route  for  a  German  in- 
vasion by  way  of  Northern  Maine ! 

I  wonder  if  you  can  picture  just  what 
happens  on  the  inside  of  a  man  who  is 
told  in  the  home  of  a  professor  in  one  of 
America's  foremost  universities  that  an 
entire  German  army  corps  is  already  in 
the  United  States,  merely  waiting  for 
word  from  the  Fatherland  to  commit  the 
same  butchery  which  was  committed 
in  Belgium.  The  seemingly  intelligent 
woman  who  made  this  remark,  and 
whose  statement  went  unchallenged, 
looked  askance  at  me,  not  sure  but  that 
underneath  my  rather  tightly  fitting 
afternoon  coat  I  wore  a  Prussian  Uhlan's 
uniform. 

How  would  you  feel  if  at  every  turn 
you  were  suspected  of  being  one  of  the 

[44] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMERICAN 

Kaiser's  spies,  and  were  told  that  Har- 
vard University  is  full  of  them?  Can 
you  imagine  hearing  this  from  a  Harvard 
student,  who  is  sure  that  one  of  these 
spies  rooms  above  him  ? 

The  ridicule  heaped  upon  Henry  Ford 
and  his  Peace  Party,  the  scorn  with  which 
the  word  pacifist  is  pronounced,  as  if  it 
were  synonymous  with  traitor,  make  me 
think  that  I  have  misinterpreted  or  mis- 
understood the  Spirit  of  America,  and 
that  this  country  is,  after  all,  only  a  piece 
of  the  Old  World  separated  by  the  At- 
lantic Ocean  and  not  by  higher  ideals. 

It  is  difficult  not  to  yield  to  the  pull  of 
the  hyphen  just  at  this  time,  when  we 
need  to  give  our  country  an  undivided 
loyalty. 

Here,  though,  is  the  hyphen,  no  matter 
how  it  came,  and  who  is  to  blame  ?  The 
French,  English,  Irish  and  German 
hyphen.  We  are  all  harking  back  and 
not  looking  forward ;  we  are  all  being 
swayed  by  the  editorial  pages  rather  than 
by  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament; 
there  is  blood  on  the  horizon,  and  it  is  in 

[45] 


THE  CONFESSION 

our  nostrils.  Even  as  dogs,  who  are 
trained  to  guard  sheep  and  to  give  their 
lives  for  them,  begin  to  eat  them  as  soon 
as  they  smell  their  blood,  so  we  feel  the 
passion  of  primitive  man;  the  mouldy 
odour  of  the  cave  is  upon  us,  and  we  have 
fallen  back  several  thousand  years. 

I  am  not  afraid  of  war ;  not  afraid  that 
house  and  home,  reared  in  the  joy  of 
love  and  labour,  may  be  destroyed. 

I  am  not  afraid  of  dying: — I  should 
rather  be  riddled  by  bullets  than  eaten 
by  cancer.  I  should  sooner  perish  by  a 
submarine  than  from  Bright' s  disease. 

I  do  fear,  frankly  fear,  killing  and  des- 
troying. Most  of  all,  I  am  afraid  of  de- 
molishing the  structure  we  have  reared 
here ;  a  rare  commonwealth  made  up  of 
the  flotsam  and  jetsam  of  the  world, 
which  has  drifted  in  through  the  longer 
and  shorter  years.  We  are  a  nation — a 
great  nation — a  united  nation,  although 
composed  of  the  most  diverse  materials. 

Men  talk  of  our  democracy's  being  a 
failure.  If  it  had  achieved  nothing  more 
than  the  making  of  the  United  States, 
[46] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

faulty  but  great,  defective  but  united, 
democracy  would  be  justified ;  for  no 
monarchy  has  ever  succeeded  in  so  diffi- 
cult and  dangerous  an  experiment. 

What  shall  we  do  about  it  ? 

The  great  cry  is  for  preparedness.  It 
has  been  shouted  from  the  housetops,  it 
fills  the  public  press  and  the  pulpit  until 
the  word  fairly  reeks  from  its  two  ele- 
ments :  fear  and  hate. 

I  have  no  objection  to  preparedness ; 
but  I  do  object  to  the  attending  hysteria, 
which  may  accomplish  the  very  opposite  of 
what  is  desired,  and  weaken  rather  than 
strengthen  the  nation.  Guns  and  battle- 
ships can  be  bought  for  money  ;  but  fidel- 
ity and  devotion  cannot  be  gained  by 
breeding  suspicion  of  those  who  happen 
to  have  been  born  in  another  country. 

I  plead  guilty  to  being  one  of  those 
"mollycoddles"  and  "college  sissies" 
held  up  to  the  ridicule  of  the  populace.  I 
do  not  believe  in  war  ;  not  until  every  re- 
source to  settle  the  difficulty  without  it 
has  been  exhausted.  If,  however,  war 
should  come  and  the  vital  interests  of  the 

[47] 


THE  CONFESSION 

nation  be  attacked,  if  this  government 
were  in  danger  of  perishing  from  the 
earth,  I  and  my  son  would  stand  some- 
where in  the  line,  just  as  countless  "  hy- 
phenated Americans  "  and  their  children 
would,  even  if  we  had  to  face  our  own 
brothers,  who  came  to  do  the  brutal  bid- 
ding of  their  monarchs. 

I  am  sure  of  myself  under  any  circum- 
stances. I  am  not  so  sure  of  the  millions, 
if  we  question  their  loyalty  and  suspect 
their  motives  because  in  this  desperate 
struggle  their  sympathies  are  with  the 
mother  country,  rather  than  with  its  ene- 
mies. 

What  shall  we  do  then  with  these 
millions  of  "Hyphenated  Americans"? 
What  about  the  hyphen  ? 

THE  REMEDIES 

Three  remedies  are  proposed.  One  of 
them  by  Colonel  Roosevelt,  who,  if  he 
was  rightly  quoted  (which  is  open  to 
doubt),  said  :  "  To  hell  with  the  hyphen." 

It  is  a  very  drastic  remedy  which,  as 
the  Colonel  knows,  has  been  mentioned 

[48] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEBICAN 

once  or  twice  in  connection  with  the  still 
unsolved  problem  which  he  himself  repre- 
sents. 

I  have  always  strenuously  opposed  any 
such  stringent  measure,  for  I  had  a  great 
deal  of  respect  and  admiration  for  the 
Colonel.  Then,  too,  I  have  some  regard 
for  the  poor,  unregenerate  souls  in  tor- 
ment. 

No,  the  time  when  anathemas  were 
effective  has  passed  long  ago;  for  men 
discovered  that  most  evils  prospered  by 
cursing  them,  and  that  so,  much  of  good 
was  destroyed.  Since  the  phrase  was 
coined,  and  this  particular,  strenuous 
method  of  doing  away  with  it  was  pro- 
posed, we  who  were  born  in  one  country 
and  born  again  in  another,  are  beginning 
to  question  our  innermost  experiences. 

We  are  wondering  whether  we  have 
not  thrown  away  our  birthright,  and 
whether  we  ought  not  to  defend  and  per- 
petuate this  hyphen.  We,  who  always 
interpreted  it  as  binding  us  to  America, 
are  beginning  to  wonder  whether  it  should 
not  bind  us  to  the  mother  country  instead. 
[49] 


THE  CONFESSION 

It  has  aroused  this  questioning  mood, 
and  the  man  who  is  congratulating  him- 
self upon  coining  the  happy  (?)  phrase,  may 
find  its  persistent  use  in  connection  with 
the  elongated  dash,  disastrous. 

It  may  undo  all  that  has  been  done 
throughout  the  generous  years  in  which 
we  voluntarily  yielded  ourselves  to  the 
forces  and  processes  which  made  us  into 
what  we  and  our  children  were  proud  to 
call  ourselves — Americans. 

Others  have  proposed  that  because  the 
Germans  have  not  become  pro-English, 
which  seems  to  them  equivalent  to  their 
not  having  become  Americans,  we  must 
adopt  a  national  policy  which  will  bring 
about  the  desired  result. 

In  the  editorial  columns  of  one  of  our 
national  weeklies  there  appeared  re- 
cently a  complaint  because  the  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin  had  sent  out  circulars 
announcing,  in  German,  a  short  course 
for  farmers.  The  inference  was  that  this 
was  un-American,  and  that  we  would  be 
better  off  if  these  farmers  remained  poor 
farmers,  rather  than  to  be  made  good 

[50] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

ones  through  the  aid  of  their  mother 
tongue. 

This  means  a  drift  towards  the  very 
methods  employed  in  Europe  ;  a  sort  of 
"  Sprachen-kampf"  which  has  made  the 
Poles  of  Germany  more  Polish,  and  the 
Danes  of  Schleswig-Holstein  more  Danish. 
This  method  has  made  of  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  monarchy  a  Babel,  in  which 
the  builders,  whose  tongues  have  been 
confounded,  threw  bricks  at  each  other 
rather  than  keep  on  building. 

In  my  judgment  we  have  succeeded 
in  keeping  America  a  country  of  English 
speech  just  because  we  have  not  insisted 
upon  it.  If  there  had  been  governmental 
pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  the  im- 
migrant's use  of  English  we  would  have 
fallen  heir  to  the  confusion  of  Babel,  and 
to  the  never  ending  language  problems  of 
many  of  the  countries  of  Europe. 

Just  because  we  have  not  objected  to 
religion's  being  preached  in  the  tongue  in 
which  men  were  born,  the  second  genera- 
tion demanded  to  hear  it  in  English. 

We  have  permitted  the  Poles  to  build 

[51] 


THE  CONFESSION 

a  Polish  college  which  will  languish,  and 
ultimately  pass  away,  just  as  the  purely 
German  colleges  have  languished  and 
died.  The  one  thing  we  need  to  make 
the  hyphen  permanent,  or,  worse  still, 
make  this  a  country  of  warring  hyphens, 
is  to  demand  through  pressure  that  noth- 
ing but  the  English  language  shall  be 
taught  and  spoken  here. 

I  am  not  sure  that  we  can,  or  that  we 
ought,  to  accelerate  Americanization. 
Thus  far  it  has  been  a  contagion  with 
no  artificial  stimulus.  When  we  shall 
say  :  "  Go  to,  we  will  Americanize  you," 
there  will  be  organized  effort  to  resist  us, 
and  the  resistance  will  grow  with  our  in- 
sistence. 

We  have,  I  am  sure,  lost  many  oppor- 
tunities to  interpret  America  to  the  im- 
migrant, especially  to  the  adult.  He  does 
not  come  in  contact  with  any  of  our 
national  institutions  except  the  saloon 
and  the  police  court.  If  he  does  become 
a  citizen  he  usually  attains  to  that  high 
and  holy  privilege  through  the  venal 
politician. 

[52] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEBlCAN 

The  whole  process  of  naturalization, 
which  has  received  some  attention  in 
these  later  years,  needs  to  be  further  re- 
vised and  improved ;  especially  by  dignify- 
ing it  and  by  making  the  applicant  realize 
that  it  is  a  privilege  which  he  may  forfeit 
if  he  does  not  perform  its  duties  con- 
scientiously. 

I  am  not  sure  that  the  attempt  to  ac- 
celerate naturalization,  by  making  the 
process  easier,  may  not  end  in  cheapen- 
ing it  still  further.  I  believe  that  every 
man  who  wishes  to  become  a  citizen 
ought  to  be  willing  to  take  pains  and 
make  sacrifices,  if  necessary,  to  gain  that 
end. 

Citizenship  is  too  valuable  a  possession 
to  be  thrown  at  people,  and  it  is  a  mis- 
taken notion  to  believe  that  because  a 
man  has  taken  out  his  naturalization 
papers  he  is  necessarily  a  patriot.  In 
fact,  we  know  that  the  two  are  not  iden- 
tical, and  I  can  easily  imagine  myself  lov- 
ing this  country  and  being  ready  to  sacri- 
fice myself  for  it,  even  had  I  not  the 
sometimes  doubtful  privilege  of  voting. 
[53] 


THE  CONFESSION 

We  should  apply  a  test  more  searching 
than  the  mere  answering  of  a  few  ques- 
tions which  may  be  learned  by  rote.  No 
man  should  be  allowed  to  become  a  citizen 
unless  his  conduct,  during  five  years' 
residence  in  this  country,  has  proved  that 
he  is  already  an  American  in  spirit ;  that 
he  knows  the  meaning  of  liberty  and  has 
not  abused  it ;  and  that  he  is  capable  of 
cooperating  with  others  in  realizing  that 
freedom. 

He  ought  to  be  able  to  prove  that  he 
has  left  behind  him  Europe's  racial, 
religious  and  national  animosities  and 
prejudices.  He  ought  not  to  become  a 
child  of  this  democracy,  and,  as  often 
happens,  an  added  care,  until  he  has 
proved  that  he  knows  its  meaning  and 
has  lived  up  to  it. 

These  rigid  tests  might  be  difficult  to 
apply,  but  certainly  I  should  be  greatly  op- 
posed to  any  cheapening  of  the  process. 
The  exploited  immigrant  is  very  poor 
material  for  good  citizenship,  whether 
that  exploitation  has  been  made  by  the 
shrewder  and  earlier  comers  among  his 
[54] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEKICAN 

own,  which  is  frequently  the  case,  by 
heartless  corporations,  or  by  petty  of- 
ficials who  are  supposed  to  protect  him. 

Our  satellite  cities,  crude,  huge,  spring- 
ing up  to-day  and  ready  to  perish  to- 
morrow, are  poor  places  in  which  to 
train  men  for  citizenship.  The  hovels 
in  which  the  immigrants  live,  or  are  per- 
mitted to  live,  the  vulgarity  and  brutality 
of  the  life  which  surrounds  them,  are 
also  poor  places  for  the  training  of  future 
American  citizens  from  whom  we  expect 
self-respect,  respect  for  others,  and  power  [ 
to  control  themselves  and  others. 

The  greatest  enemy  of  the  immigrant 
is  the  saloon  ;  and  if  he  could  not  obtain 
liquor,  it  would  prove  one  of  the  greatest 
blessings  to  him  and  to  the  community  in 
which  he  lives. 

It  is  more  necessary  to  prohibit  the 
sale  of  liquor  to  certain  groups  of  immi- 
grants than  to  the  Indians :  for  the  most 
docile  and  law-abiding  among  them  are 
turned  into  fiends  by  its  use.  It  has 
been  one  of  the  most  potent  agencies  in 
despoiling  and  corrupting  them. 

[55] 


THE  CONFESSION 

A  rigid  insistence  upon  economic  and 
social  justice,  and  the  assurance  that  the 
state  looks  upon  them  as  something 
more  than  animated  machines,  to  be 
used  and  abused  at  the  owners'  will, 
would  bind  these  millions  in  gratitude  to 
the  country  of  which  they  now  know 
little  or  nothing,  except  when  they  are 
punished  for  breaking  its  laws. 

I  have  strongly  urged,  but  thus  far  in 
vain,  that  every  ship  which  carries  emi- 
grants should  have  on  board  a  United 
States  officer  who  would  use  the  time 
of  transit  to  instruct  the  people  coming 
to  us.  They  should  be  told  of  their 
privileges  and  their  duties,  the  nature  of 
our  government  and  the  part  they  may 
ultimately  have  in  it. 

I  have  often  acted  voluntarily  in  such  a 
capacity,  and  have  found  that  by  the  aid 
of  immigrants  who  are  returning  to  us, 
such  instruction  can  be  effectively  given. 

Much  of  the  preliminary  work  of  in- 
spection could  thus  be  done.  I  know 
there  are  difficulties  in  the  way,  but  they 
are  not  insurmountable. 

[56] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMERICAN 

The  immigrant  receiving  station  should 
not  be  merely  a  heartless  machine  for 
sifting  this  human  material.  The  gov- 
ernment ought  to  do  something  more  for 
these  people  than  put  a  chalk  mark  upon 
their  coats,  or  open  the  gate  of  a  strange 
and  new  country  without  a  word  of  ad- 
vice or  warning. 

Our  national  holidays  might  gain  new 
significance  for  us  if  in  some  public  man- 
ner we  would  share  them  with  these  new- 
comers for  whom  festivals  have  always 
had  great  religious  and  national  mean- 
ing. 

The  machinery  of  electing  our  public 
servants  might  be  made  elevating  rather 
than  degrading  to  the  new  sharers  of  the 
great  privileges  of  our  democracy. 

I  have  the  utmost  faith  in  the  power 
of  a  good  example,  and  firmly  believe 
that  we  must  develop  a  finer  type  of  na- 
tive American  citizen. 

Consider  the  attitude  of  the  average 
American  towards  the  government  of  his 
city  or  country,  the  low  tone  of  our  dis- 
cussion of  public  issues,  the  ridicule 
[57] 


THE  CONFESSION 

which  we  heap  upon  our  officials  from 
which  even  the  chief  magistrate  is  not 
spared ;  the  personal  and  partisan  self- 
ishness so  strongly  in  evidence  even  in 
this  most  critical  moment  of  our  national 
life.  Need  we  then  wonder  if  every  hy- 
phenated citizen  does  not  manifest  the 
gracious  unselfishness  of  a  George  Wash- 
ington or  the  sacrificial  devotion  of  an 
Abraham  Lincoln? 

At  least  one  American  writer  shows 
ignorance  regarding  the  immigrant's 
character  by  calling  him  ungrateful. 

Among  all  his  shortcomings  this  is  the 
least,  and  among  his  virtues  it  is  the 
greatest,  as  every  one  knows  who  has 
sensed  the  soul  of  these  grateful  people. 

There  are  among  them  those  who 
bitterly  assail  our  social  order,  with  its 
glaring  injustice  to  the  many.  They 
criticize  our  laws  which  protect  property 
to  the  neglect  of  person,  which  is  infi- 
nitely more  sacred.  They  are  merely 
doing  in  their  crude  way  what  is  being 
done  every  day  in  our  colleges  in  a 
somewhat  more  refined  but  more  incisive 

[58] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

way.  The  difference  is  that  the  agitator 
prints  his  protest  in  pamphlets  and 
binds  them  in  red ;  while  the  professor 
writes  a  volume  which  he  calls  a  text- 
book. 

No,  they  are  not  an  ungrateful  people. 
It  is  true  that  one  of  them  has  said,  in 
public  print,  that  when  the  war  is  over 
the  Germans  will  return  to  the  Fatherland 
en  masse,  because  all  they  sought  here  was 
economic  betterment.  There  may  be  an 
exodus  of  some  Germans.  In  fact  every 
German  who  has  ceased  to  be  a  loyal 
American,  who  has  no  confidence  in  her 
institutions,  who  has  no  faith  in  her  ideals, 
ought  to  return,  for  he  would  be  a  menace 
to  those  of  us  who  remain  and  who  will 
find  it  difficult  enough  to  be  trusted  at  a 
time  when  we  shall  be  eager  to  prove  our 
love  and  loyalty  to  our  adopted  country. 

The  larger  number  which  will  expatriate 
itself  from  this  country  will  be  certain 
Americans  returning  to  their  chateaux  in 
France,  their  pensions  and  villas  in  Italy, 
and  their  spas  and  cursaals  in  Germany. 
All  these  are  now  deserted,  nearly  bank- 
[59] 


THE  CONFESSION 

nipt,  and  will  be  glad  when  the  Americans 
return. 

The  problem  will  not  be  to  keep  the 
immigrants  who  are  here  from  going 
back ;  the  real  problem  will  be,  how, 
wisely  to  regulate  the  inflow  which  is 
bound  to  come  when  the  war  ceases. 

We,  the  "  Hyphenated  Americans,"  will 
stay,  because  we  need  this  country,  be- 
cause humanity  needs  it  and  its  institu- 
tions, now  as  never  before.  We  wish  to 
help  it  become  such  a  country  as  it  ought 
to  be,  kept  from  Europe's  plagues,  and 
healed  from  its  diseases.  We  wish  to 
live  and  work  so  that  we  shall  have  the 
right  to  call  it  our  country.  We  ought 
to  have  the  same  right  to  it  as  had  those 
of  our  kin  who  followed  your  rivers, 
the  Mohawk,  the  Ohio  and  the  Missis- 
sippi ;  drawing  their  plows  through  your 
marshes,  defying  fever  and  pestilence, 
laying  the  foundations  of  your  national 
wealth,  and  shedding  their  blood  upon 
your  battle-fields. 

We  want  this  to  become  our  country, 
through  the  labour  of  the  men  who  mine 
[60] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEBICAN 

your  coal,  who  dig  and  melt  your  ore; 
and  by  the  sacrifices  of  those  who  die  in 
the  heart  of  the  mine  and  are  slain  at  the 
mouth  of  the  pit. 

These  brave  millions  working  so  coura- 
geously are  ours  and  yours  ;  the  pioneers 
of  a  new  epoch,  the  creators  of  a  new  era. 
It  is  for  you  to  say  what  the  coming  days 
are  to  mean  to  them,  and  to  you,  and  to 
the  country  which  they  love  in  spite  of  its 
sins  against  them. 

What  will  you  do  with  them  ?  It  is  for 
you  to  say.  You  may  break  them  over 
the  wheels  of  what  you  proudly  call  prog- 
ress. You  may  starve  them  into  the  sub- 
missive serfdom  out  of  which  they  have 
escaped.  You  may  make  them  ashamed 
of  their  heritage,  lodged  in  brain  and 
heart,  or  you  may  make  cowards  of  them 
and  compel  them  to  bow  before  your  flag, 
as  a  symbol  of  authority ;  but  they  will 
not  be  Americans. 

The  only  way  I  know  in  which  to  make 
Americans  of  them,  members  of  a  free 
commonwealth,  is  to  treat  them  like  hu-    , 
man  beings. 

[61] 


THE  CONFESSION 

Treat  them  as  you  would  the  child  born 
late  into  your  own  family — as  one  of  you  ; 
have  confidence  in  them,  even  in  these 
days,  when  their  loyalty  may  be  waver- 
ing, and  when  in  their  confusion  they  do 
not  know  where  to  turn. 

This  is  a  time  of  heart-searching  for  us 
who  have  accepted  America's  sanctuary, 
and  also  for  those  born  in  this  land  of  the 
free.  To  the  native  American  there  comes 
a  call  to  curb  his  individualism  without 
sacrificing  his  individuality ;  to  quicken 
his  patriotic  impulses  without  dulling  his 
feeling  for  humanity.  It  is  an  insistent 
call  to  prepare  for  war,  and  a  still  more  in- 
sistent call  to  prepare  for  peace  ;  a  deep, 
down-reaching  peace,  a  high,  uplifting 
peace. 

For  us,  so-called  "  Hyphenated  Ameri- 
cans," this  period  is  one  to  severely  test 
our  loyalty  to  this  country  which  has  be- 
come ours  by  the  grace  of  its  people. 
They  are  a  generous  people,  who  mean 
to  be  just,  a  people  whom  we  know  to  be 
far  better  than  they  appear  to  us  now, 
and  to  whom  we  are  bound  for  all  time. 

[62] 


OF  A  HYPHENATED  AMEEICAN 

In  our  heart  of  hearts  we  love  this 
country  more  than  Germany,  or  Austria 
or  England  or  France  ;  we  love  it  above 
the  holy  names  of  Jerusalem  or  Rome — 
The  Sanctuary  of  Humanity — America. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


[63] 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 
or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 
2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 

(415)642-6753 
1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  NRLF 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days 

prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


FEB  1 4  1992 


MAR  2  0  1995 


JUN  031998 


N9   594292 


E184 

Steiner,  E.A.          Al 
The  confession  of      S8 
a  hyphenated  American* 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


